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Chapter 14 CESCR General Comment No. 14 (2000) on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Article 12) 1. Health is a fundamental human right indispensable for the exercise of other human rights. Every human being is entitled to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health conducive to living a life in dignity. The realization of the right to health may be pursued by numerous, complementary approaches, such as the formulation of health policies, or the implementation of health programmes developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), or the adoption of speciWc legal instruments. Moreover, the right to health includes certain components which are legally enforceable. 2. The human right to health is recognized in numerous international instruments. Article 25(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights afWrms: “Everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate for the health of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services.” The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides the most comprehensive article on the right to health in international human rights law. According to Article 12 (1) of the Covenant, States Parties recognize “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, while Article 12 (2) enumerates, by way of illustration, a number of “steps to be taken by the States parties [. . .] to achieve the full realization of this right.” Additionally, the right to health is recognized, inter alia, in Article 5 (e) (iv) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination of 1965, in Articles 11 (1) (f) and 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women of 1979 and in Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989. Several regional human rights instruments also recognize the right to health, such as the European Social Charter of 1961 as revised (Article 11), the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights of 1981 (Article 16) and the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1988 (Article 10). Similarly, the right to health has been proclaimed by the Commission on Human Rights, as well as in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of 1993 and other international instruments. Original notes omitted. 3. The right to health is closely related to and dependent upon the realization of other human rights, as contained in the International Bill of Rights, including the rights to food, housing, work, education, human dignity, life, non-discrimination, equality, the prohibition against torture, privacy, access to information, and the freedoms of association , assembly and movement. These and other rights and freedoms address integral components of the right to health. 4. In drafting Article 12 of the Covenant, the General Assembly’s Third Committee did not adopt the deWnition of health contained in the preamble to the Constitution of WHO which conceptualizes health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or inWrmity.” However, the reference in Article 12 (1) of the Covenant to “the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health” is not conWned to the right to health care. On the contrary, the drafting history and the express wording of Article 12 (2) acknowledge that the right to health embraces a wide range of socio-economic factors that promote conditions whereby people can lead a healthy life, and extends to the underlying determinants of health, such as food and nutrition, housing, access to safe and potable water and sanitation, safe and healthy working conditions, and a healthy environment. 5. The Committee is aware that, for millions of people throughout the world, the full enjoyment of the right to health still remains a distant goal. Moreover, in many cases, especially for those living in poverty, this goal is becoming increasingly remote. The Committee recognizes the formidable structural and other obstacles that result from international and other factors beyond the control of States, and impeding the full realization of Article 12 in many States parties. 6. With a view to assisting States parties’ implementation of the Covenant and the fulWllment of their reporting obligations, this General Comment focuses on the normative content of Article 12 (Part I), States parties’ obligations (Part II), violations (Part III), and implementation at the national level (Part IV), while Part V deals with...

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